The keratin plugs/nodules are caused by the fungus, or more strictly, by the body's immune response to the fungus - either (or both) malassezia or candida. Urea and/or salicylic acid will help get rid of the keratin plugs/nodules, but they will just come back if one does not treat the fungus.

11 hours ago, Aussie Scientist said:

The keratin plugs/nodules are caused by the fungus, or more strictly, by the body's immune response to the fungus - either (or both) malassezia or candida. Urea and/or salicylic acid will help get rid of the keratin plugs/nodules, but they will just come back if one does not treat the fungus.

I believe that anything that causes damage to the skin can make the skin produce keratin. Look for example at milia (which is also keratin clogging pores):

Secondary milia, whichdevelop as a side effect of certain diseases, such as herpes zoster, contact dermatitis, and leishmaniasis, and traumas, including blistering, sun damage, dermabrasion, or medications like corticosteroids, and are located next to sweat ducts.

https://www.acne.org/what-are-milia-and-do-they-relate-to-acne.html

Whatever the cause, it is my experience that keratin plugsunfortunately do not disappear on their own, even when the skin is healed. You need to use chemicals that break them down like urea or salicyclic acid and/or retinoids to help them bring to the surface. Urea worked best for me.

Aussie Scientist, thankyou for posting that information. Can you expand on what else worked for you with diet etc. and the nystatin regimen.

How long should the cream be used for?

How long for and what dosage should the oral nystatin be taken? I've seen both 4 x 5ml and 4 x 1ml as daily dosages in the literature.

If the candida travels from the gut to colonise the skin, why are the blood and other tissues not affected systemically?

You might have to use anti-fungal cream for the rest of your life, if your malasezzia and/or candida are caused by taking antibiotics. Having said that, you will know when the problem is under control as your skin will look "normal". I would keep applying topical anti-fungals for some weeks after your skin looks normal.

Take the dosage pf nystatin that is on the Nilstat bottle of liquid for mouth thrush, or the number of tablets specified on the container for gut candida (thrush is candida). You swish the liquid around your mouth and swallow it. Nystatin is very saoe. Oral nystin will NOT control skin candida, as nystatin does not leave the gut (the nystatin molecule is too large to go through the gut wall).

Which country are you in ? I can send brand names of anti-fungals to you, when I know which country you are in.

Do you have dandruff or a white tongue, or both? the first thing is to work out whether you have candida (painful/itchy red skin, nodules, cysts, "pimples", ingrown hairs, infected hairs, etc., cracks at corner of mouth, white tongue, sometimes headaches, tiredness etc) or malassezia (itchy spots, nodules, sometimes cysts, ingrown infected hairs, flaking skin, "pimples", dandruff, sebborrheic dermatitis). Malasezzia does not get into one's gut; candida does. Nystatin cream is best for skin candida (although clotrimazole will have some effect). Terbenafine cream is best for malasezzia. Also, shampoo with climbazole (not to be confused with clotrimazole) if you have malassezzia - I can give you brand names depending on which country you are in.

Use 0.5% hydrocortisone cream and/or cream or spray with lignocaine/lidicaine with the anti-fungal cream on your skin, for a few days (not for too long) to stop the inflammation. Candida make prostiglandins which cause inflammation and help the candida to colonise and attack skin. It is necessary to use topical, anti-inflammatory cream/gel for a while to stop the inflammation, while you are killing the candida, to let one's skin recover. Hydrocortisone (like all cortocosteroids) decreases one's own immune response, so don't use it for too long (0.5% hydrocortisone is safe to use for a short while, including on one's face for a while). Lignocaine/lidocaine cream can be dangerous if overused (but OK to use for a short while on not too large areas of skin - read the instructions).

Wash you skin with an anti-bacterial wash - one with chorhexadine is the best, while you have candida and/or malasezzia on your skin, to prevent secondary bacterial infections such as golden staph!! Don't touch infected areas of skin without twice washing your hands first and especially NEVER touch your nose and then touch your skin. Most people carry staph in their nose. Use a different towel to dry affected areas. Wash the towel frequently.

Do NOT use moisturiser on areas of ski affected by candida or malassezia, as malasezzia feeds on organic oils in moisturisers, and both candida and malassezia flourish on moist skin. Dust your skin (not your face if you are going to be seen in public !) with cornflour (maize flour) after showering and after applying anti-fungal cream.

I am not convinced that candida travels to one's skin from one's gut. I think it simultaneously "erupts" in both places, following the destruction of good bacteria by antibiotics. Candida attacks organs in people whose immune systems are seriously compromised from HIV or chemotherapy. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1797637/; https://www.microbiologyresearch.org/docserver/fulltext/jmm/62/1/10_jmm045054.pdf?expires=1555134469&id=id&accname=guest&checksum=C511DF1A40A71D4E6956FA61264902BB.

Candida does not generally attack the organs in people who are healthy and whose immune systems are not seriously compromised (so don't worry), as our immune systems fight the candida. But, after taking antibiotics, our immune systems are compromised to some extent (not as much as in people with HIV etc) by the loss of the good bacteria, and hence candida erupts on skin and sometimesi one's gut. The signs of having an eruption of gut candida are tiredness, headaches, feelings of disorientation. If you don't have those symptoms, then you probably just have a skin candida problem (if you have a skin symptoms of candida and a white tongue) or a skin malasezzia problem (if you have skin symptoms of malasezia and dandruff, flaking skin).

Re diet - avoid dairy products, (yeast or mushroom products - yes, I know that seems weird, and I did not believe it for a while, but I think it is true because candida sensitises one to all fungal species) and gluten (because gluten is inflammatory). Yeast is a fungus. In my experience, it is not possible to fix a skin candida (or malasezzia) problem with diet, but the wrong diet can make the problem worse. Some vitamins, herbs and foods do possibly help - pau d'arco, magnolia bark, turmeric, berberine (tastes dreadful!), quercetin, mangosteen, vitamin B3, undeconoic acid, coconut oil....

Mycostatin is sold locally but becoming harder to find. A pharmacist told me the manufacturer has discontinued it.My symptoms for 5+ years (rubbery white plugs that are removed with tweezers/pseudo-scabs that don't heal well with ulcerated tissue underneath) are the same as others in this thread and history is a match for candida. I suspect multiple doses of IV and oral antibiotics are the cause. Further antibiotic prescription from ignorant doctors treating as bacterial folliculitis made things worse.

Ozzy2019

Thanks for your post.

Your symptoms are definitely those of skin candida.

Mycostatin has NOT been discontinued. You can buy it online in Australia, if you cannot find it at a chemist. https://www.chemistwarehouse.com.au/buy/6362/mycostatin-antifungal-cream-15g . Chemists tell people crazy and untrue things, as doctors do.

I would buy a few tubes of mycostatin, as you may need to use it forever... or at least for a long time. I am glad that the mycostatin and hydrocortisone combo is working.

Make sure that you keep the affected areas of your skin VERY DRY. Candida loves moisture. Applying cornflour is to keep the skin dry.

Spot treatment with tea tree oil or eucalyptus oil may help - will sting a bit.

The candida is caused by antibiotics, as you have correctly surmised.

The medical profession is in COMPLETE denial about antibiotics causing skin fungal conditions, such as candida.

On 3/30/2019 at 9:29 PM, Aussie Scientist said:

How charming is the above post. Here we are - helping each other to deal with a skin condition caused largely by prescribed antibiotics, and we are accused (with no evidence and no basis in fact) of being (illicit) drug takers. I do not understand what causes someone to make unfounded accusations against people who he/she does not know.

To the decent people on this web site - pls use anti-fungal cream according to my advice in my posts above and in most cases the problem will go away. Some recalcitrant cases may not. I am happy to provide advice for people whose skin problem is not fixed by anti-fungal cream. Note that I am not a medical doctor and I can only provide advice based on my personal experience and my very extensive reading of the relevant literature.

 

AMEN!!! It is a widely known fact that peoplewho do meth have skin lesions. So, why would anyone seek information about their unknown skin problems in order to find a cause and treatmentif they already know that the meth theyre doing causes skin problems? That makes no sense. And assumingthat most of these posters and readers are all meth addicts and dont realize that meth is the reason for their skin problems is offensive,pompous and downright stupid.

There is NO reason to believe that anyone on this site is using meth. I know lots of people with the problems that people on this site have. In all cases the problems are caused by taking antibiotics and NONE OF THESE PEOPLE IS USING METH OR ANY OTHER ILLICIT DRUGS.

Hello everyone,

I have been having this problem as well and living in a nightmare for 3 years. So painful on so many levels, and isolating. Thank you all for posting!!!! I have never posted on anything like this before but this condition is real and excruciating! My face has been ravaged and scarred. I have a 6 month old son and am terrified I will infect him! These sores take almost a month+ to heal and are very difficult to get under control. They sting, burn, and itch at the same time as well as weep and not scab over. Reading your stories I™m hopeful we can problem solve and find a cure together for this condition.

If you have the same exact thing...please post! I work at a teaching hospital and research needs to be done about this! This is the first time I™ve actually seen photos of someone else experiencing the same thing! We need each other to solve this!

I™ll attach some photos..

Sunup

This problem is caused by candida fungus. I am 99% percent sure of this. Did you see my earlier post on this site ?

Have you taken antibiotics, or birth control pills ? Do you have a white tongue ? Do you have unexplained headaches or tiredness or a red rash ?

The reason the sores won't heal is because the candida makes one skin make keratin nodules etc. which the skin sees as "foreign".

The treatment for the skin problem is to apply antifungal cream preferably nystatin cream (or clotrimazole cream if you cannot get nystatin cream) and keep the skin very dry - fungus loves moisture. Do NOT use moisturiser.

Which country are you in ? If you get back to me I can provide further information. I have exactly what you have, including the things on the last of your photos (which are horrible..).

Regarding the use of street drugs as cause that is bullshit. I have used, and prior to use and after sobriety i still have this same skin problem off and on.

The drugs will worsen it, yes. And being high you are more likely to pick, and focus on whats in your skin. But dont blame dope for causing it!

I am glad to have found this post, im having a bad episode right now and i do believe its yeast problem. Wish i had known this 25 years ago. Caused me so much distress now i hope to end the skin issues. Already tried Lotrimin its helped tremendously! I might miss finding those little white plugs in skin and pulling them out, cause it felt so good to grab them and remove them and then watch the lesion heal up!

When you pull out the plug it bleeds.. goopy thick stuff or not? I mean blood so thick with crud u wonder how it gets out..?

I ask cause i have same problems, i have even used top of razor to cut through the area, a very tiny poke w blade, to allow the infection, thick goopy blood full of crud, to drain, without removing plug but i think a few plugs comes out asthe blood drains. And dang it feels good draining the areaor pulling plugs. !

Donna

Yes, the bleeding, plugs, goopy stuff, etc are signs that the problem has a fungal cause. The bleeding and plugs etc are because the fungus has attacked the follicles. Good that Lamisil is working - nystatin cream an/or clotrimazole topical anti-fungal cream will probably work even better.

Let me know how you go...

The lesions on my face, back, chest and arms are identical to these. I've been having the same problem since 1992. One dermatologist said I was just a picker, one said it was folliculitis, one thought it was an auto immune disease. NOTHING has helped. Mine start out as large, very deep boils, which are quitepainful, and feel like there is a shard of glass or a cactus needle stuck in them - they hurtif you just brush against them.

As they come to the surface, they seep this orange, clear fluid, that reminds me of acid, as it strips away the skin, and leaves a crater with all of the white plugs inside. As it is doing this, the green/yellow scab will grow on top. I wash it out, and scrub it with a hot, soapy wash cloth. This cycle continues for the multiple lesions, all over my body, until all of the plugs are out. At that time they heal, leave white scars, and sometimes crater like scars.

I almost feel as if the dermatologists are involved in some sort of conspiracy! There are hundreds of thousands of people, all over the world who have the EXACT symptoms. Surely someone has tried to figure out the cause. Yeast may be involved - I went on a year long Anti- Candida diet, and it still didn't help. There is an underlying cause of all of this. Like many others, my lymph nodes, under my jaw, ear and throughout my body, all swell when I have a large breakout of these sores. I am going to try Manuka Oil, which was mentioned in multiple blogs on [removed]. I will return and let you know how it works.

On 8/31/2018 at 4:59 AM, IUsed2BePretty said:

I completely 100% agree! I've been to 9 different Specialists, 7 of them Dermatologists and I even drove a 9 hour trip to Mayo Clinic to get answers. Nobody and I mean NOBODY could figure it out, not that they were really to anyway. If the diagnoses wasn't obvious to them within the 15 minutes they examined me, they just labeled it "dermatitis" and gave me antibiotics with antibacterial cream or anti-inflammatory cream. BOTH OF THOSE MAKE IT WORSE!!! Regardless of the fact that my skin biopsies showed PITYROSPORUM YEAST (malassezia) embedded in my tissue, the dermatologists still didn't think it was that. Well let me tell you, IT WAS. After years of being overprescribed and unnecessarily prescribed Antibiotics along with corticosteroids, it threw off my body's natural microbiome. When you take antibiotics without counteracting with probiotics, they kill off all the good bacteria along with the bad bacteria. You need the good bacteria to keep your body's yeast/fungus levels in check. When all the bacteria is killed, the YEAST GROWS OUT OF CONTROL. I had some success with ketoconazole but what helped the most was actually CLOTRIMAZOLE. Oddly enough the product that worked the best was from the Dollar Tree in the form of Athletes Foot cream (1% clotrimazole) because it also has aloe which helped remove the "biofilm" that made the yeast hard to treat. I've spent 100's of hours researching my condition on the National Library of Medicine website along with all the doctors visits. If you're looking more info to see if this could be what you have, search "pityrosporum folliculitis", "malassezia folliculitis" or "fungal acne". Oh, and to answer the question of what those little plugs are, they're keratin plugs and they're what keeps the yeast (pityrosporum, malassezia) trapped inside causing the infection in your follicles and sebaceous glands.

I used to be pretty, too. I have the EXACT sores and severe white scarring all over my body with constant open sores, as well. When people see me at pools, lakes etc. They give me odd looks or flat out ask me what they are. I always assure them it is not contagious. Yet another blow to my confidence.

 I've been having the same problem since 1992. One dermatologist said I was just a picker, one said it was folliculitis, one thought it was an auto immune disease. NOTHING has helped. Mine start out as  large, very deep boils, which are very painful, and feel like there is a shard of glass or a cactus needle stuck in them -  they hurt if you just brush against them.

As they come to the surface, they seep this orange, clear fluid, that reminds me of acid, as it strips away the skin, and leaves a crater with all of the white plugs inside. As it is doing this, the green/yellow scab will grow on top. I wash it out, and scrub it with a hot, soapy wash cloth.  This cycle continues for the multiple lesions, all over my body, until all of the plugs are out. At that time they heal, leave white scars, and sometimes crater like scars.

I almost feel as if the dermatologists are involved in some sort of conspiracy! There are hundreds of thousands of people, all over the world who have the EXACT symptoms - multiple blogs indicate this. Surely, someone has tried to figure out the cause. Yeast may be involved - I went on a year long Anti- Candida diet, and it still didn't help. There is an underlying cause of all of this. Like many others, my lymph nodes, under my jaw, ear and throughout my body, all swell when I have a large breakout of these sores, which leads me to believe it is systemic.  I am going to try Manuka Oil, which was mentioned in multiple blogs on [removed].  I will return and let you know how it works.

Scarred and Perplexed and others on this thread

You do have fungal acne. The cause is well known in the scientific field (but doctors are in denial) - antibiotics CAUSE fungal acne.

Fungal follicullitis is just one form of folliculitis so diagnosing folliculitls is meaningless. Follicultis can be caused by many things, including fungus.

Do the following to control youir problems - ie to control fungal acne (which can cause follicultis) -

1. Buy and apply clotrimazole anti-fungal cream (no prescription required) 2-3 times a day. TOPICAL antifungal creams are TOTALLY safe.

2. Wash your hair in an antidandruff shampoo.

3. Keep the area with the "acne' VERY DRY. DO NOT USE ANY ORGANIC OILS OR MOISTURISERS ON THE AFFECTED AREA> ORGANIC OILS FEED MALASEZZIA FUNGUS (which is what pitrosporum is)

Doctors KNOW NOTHING ABOUT FUNGAL ACNE AND THEY DENY IITS EXISTENCE IN OTHERWISE HEALTHY PEOPLE.

Fungus puts out proteases which destroy skin - that is what is causing the orange, clear fluid which strips skin. The plugs are keratin which the fungus causes the folliicles to make in excessive amounts.

Diet will NOT CONTROL FUNGAL ACNE BUT THE WRONG DIET WILL MAKE it worse.

FUNGAL ACNE IS CAUSED BY TAKING ANTIBIOTICS, birth control pills (possibly accutane), and a few other meds (such as prednisone). Antibiotics destroy one's immune system which allows the fungus to invade and take over one's body.

Get back to me for further information if you wish, including how to safely deal with fungal gut problems.

Aussie Scientist, thank you for all the information you have provided. Reading this has, for the first time in years, given me a small sense of hope.

I won't bother to tell my story, mysymptoms are the same as what everyone else has already posted. It's only after reading through this thread that I made the connection to antibiotics. I am convinced now that this all began because of a prolonged period of time (5 weeks!) that I was unnecessarily prescribed antibiotics years ago - again, due to complete and utter medical incompetence.

It feels extremely depressing to do what you are supposed to do, to go to the supposed medical experts for help, and be given incorrect diagnosis after incorrect diagnosis due to theoverwhelming laziness, hubris, incompetence, etc. that seems to plague far too many people in the medical community. The only treatment optionI've been given so far is to take more antibiotics, which has clearly made the situation worse, not better.

My skin has been completely ravagedwith these extremely painful, burning sores - and I have since endured one lazy dermatologist after the nextblamingME, telling me that the only thing wrong with my skin is that I must be picking it and causing the problem myself. If I learned anything from this whole ordeal, it's that the medical fieldis filled with people who are largelymediocre at their jobs - just like any other profession.

I am at the point where suicide feels inevitable. For now at least, thank you to the people in this thread for giving me a small amount of hope.

Rhallowell

Thanks for your post.

You can get rid fungal acne, which is ALWAYS caused by prescription meds, and usually by antibiotics. Your "acne" is NOT your fault - it is the fault of the incompetent (and negligent) medical profession.

LOTS of people have had the dreadful experience that you have had, including me. My views about the medical profession are the same as yours.

I never go near doctors any more (especially not dermatologists). I do all my own research, and I have finally (almost) fixed my fungal acne problem - it took me a long time, but it is finally almost solved.

PLEASE follow the advice that I suggested in my post above (to start with) - copied below. DO NOT GIVE UP.

1. Buy and apply clotrimazole anti-fungal cream (no prescription required) 2-3 times a day. TOPICAL antifungal creams are TOTALLY safe.

2. Wash your hair in an antidandruff shampoo.

3. (Excuse the capital letters) DO NOT USE ANY ORGANIC OILS OR MOISTURISERS ON THE AFFECTED AREA. ORGANIC OILS FEED MALASEZZIA FUNGUS, an all fungus loves moisture.

4. Do NOT take antibiotics unless you have a life threatening bacterial infection. You know this now... I suspect.

5. Do NOT exfioliate your skin or use anything harsh on it.

If you get back to me with answers to the following questions, I can provide more targeted information for your situation.

Do you have one or more of the following - white tongue, dandruff, flaking skin, toenail fungus, sinus problems, gut problems, unexplained tiredness, "brain fog" or headaches.

I look forward to hearing back from you. Your acne can be fixed safely and cheaply with topical antifungal creams etc..

On 6/28/2019 at 3:09 AM, Aussie Scientist said:

1. Buy and apply clotrimazole anti-fungal cream (no prescription required) 2-3 times a day. TOPICAL antifungal creams are TOTALLY safe.

2. Wash your hair in an antidandruff shampoo.

HiAussie Scientist, thanks for your posts, it gives me hope. I also feel suicidal after 9 years of suffering from this horrible condition.In your experience how long will it take to see an improvementfrom topicalantifungals? I've been using clotrimazole and ketokonazole for a month now and sores are not getting better. They sort of heal, but then scabfalls off and these white plugs are thereagain. Thanks in advance.

Fzika

Your symptoms are the classic symptoms of fungal acne caused by candida - the dreadful white plugs are classic symptoms of candida fungal acne. Keto is not much good, if any good, for controlling candida, and clot controls candida, but only weakly, and it will NOT get rid of those dreadful whit plugs (which are keratin that the candida makes one's skin make).

I can provide advice on how to treat those dreadful white plugs, as I have those also, and I am FINALLY managing to control them.

Which country are you in ? This is so I can work out what to suggest you use, based on what you can get without a prescription. We may have to go "off label"....

Do you have one or more of the following - white tongue, dandruff, flaking skin, toenail fungus, sinus problems, gut problems, unexplained tiredness, "brain fog" or headaches.

I look forward to hearing back from you.

Aussie Scientist

Thanks for your support, it really helps mentally.

I'm in Russia, here we still can buy a lot of drugs without prescription. I tried fluconazole for a month to no avail and Livarol (keto) rectal suppositories for 5 days also withoutmuch improvement.

From your list of symptoms I havetoenail fungus, sinus problems, gut problems, unexplained tiredness and"brain fog".

Fzika

Candida fungus (which you have all the symptoms of) is largely resistant to fluco. and keto., so they are unlikely to solve your problems.

Nystatin is the best for controlling candida. The azoles are not much good for candida. I suggest people use clotrimazole to start with, because clot. will help preople with MILD fungal conditions and it is easy to get. But clot. (on its own) is not much use for people with serious candida problems.

So - Buy some topical nystatin cream and apply that to the areas with acne. See if doing that starts to control the "acne" problem, including the white plugs. If topical nystatin cream does not start to solve the "acne" problem (including the plugs), then we'll go to the next step. It is good that you can things without prescription.

You can also use a wash with salicylic acid in it - I don't usually recommend this for people with fungal acne, because salicylic acid destroys the skin barrier and allows the fungus to invade. But the fungus has invaded your skin (and mine) and salicylic acid will help to break down the white plugs (which are keratin).

Soak your toenails in 3% peroxide, to which you can add some eucalyptus or tea tree oil.

Wash you hair in antidandruff shampoo.

And, take oral nystatin (it is quite safe). Oral Nilstat is often sold as oral Nilstat. Taking oral nystatin wil fix your gut problems and therefore will fix your tiredness and brain fog. The tiredness and brain fog are caused by the candida in your gut making aldehydes, which are the chemicals that cause hangovers. If you cannot get oral nystatin then there is an alternative, but hopefully o can get oral nystatin.

Taking oral nystatin wil fix your gut and tiredness, and but it won''t fix the acne. This is because nystatin does not leave the gut (which is why it is very safe to safe).

I am happy to hear how things go.

Aussie Scientist

Hangovers - this is exactly how I feel every morning.

I have love/hate relationship with salicylic acid, definitely cannot use it every day even at low concentrations. Sometimes I feel that it aggravates the condition, sometimes I feel that without it plugs won't move and will sit there forever. 

I'll try all of your suggestions and will update on the progress. Thank you 

Aussie Scientist I want to thank you. I have had the awful skin lesions with the white plugs that dont heal for 30 years. I have tried everything in that time and despaired of ever getting rid of them. I have cried so many tears over my skin and avoided going to so many places because of how I look. I have searched and searched for answers but nothing has worked UNTIL I saw your post about using a urea based product. I had nothing to lose by trying it and its worked!!!

The urea cream has helped heal up long lasting wounds and at the first sign of new problems occurring it wards them off.

It has been almost 2 months since I had one of these awful open lesions. I have never been without one in 30 years! I still get little spots but they are normal and they go in a few days.

I cant believe something so simple has helped so much.

THANK YOU

Fizika

Your hangovers without drinking are caused by the candida in your gut making aldehydes. I look forward to hearing how you go with the "treatments". Thanks...

Thanks Polly Dolly

Are you using just a urea product or are you using a urea product and an antifungal cream. I probably recommended using an antifungal cream, maybe together with the urea ??